I picked up this beautiful Philco at a local antique mall for only $17. The case is ivory painted bakelite, and as you can see from the photo, there are almost no chips in the paint - quite a rarity for a 50 year old radio. I could not pass up such an excellent looking radio (especially for $17). I also really liked the brass pointer on the radio dial. This radio has the same case as my Philco 48-200, though the 48-200 uses Locktal tubes and this 49-500 has standard tubes. This case design was very common for Philco in the late 1940's, and radios with this style of case are quite commonly found.

When purchased, the radio had a cord which was completely disintegrated, so it was not safe to plug in. Once I got it home, I put a new cord on it, and was surprised to find out that it worked perfectly! The only other repair consisted of replacing the type-47 pilot light which lights the dial. What a great find this one was!